A Principle Modeling Framework for Software Intensive Systems

Abstract

AbstractA systematic modeling framework for utilizing UML for effective modeling is introduced, keeping consistency and traceability among the various aspects and elements of the system. The proposed framework defines five conceptual decomposition levels for software‐intensive systems modeling, namely, the Business level, the Software‐Intensive System (SWIS) level, the Computer Software Configuration Item (CSCI) level, the Computer Software Component level (CSC) and the Computer Software Unit (CSU) level. Each system‐element at each level is considered a “system‐of‐interest” on its own, while all of them adhere to a unified common definition of the term “system”. In addition, each of the analysis and design levels is associated with integration and testing level, and a consistent modeling between the operational configurations and the testing configurations is introduced. Consideration is also given to modeling of configurations in other stages of the life cycle. The framework has been successfully deployed and proven usable in a graduate level systems engineering course as well as in an undergraduate software engineering course.